Bible Question:
Hi Tim, There are a bunch more verses that the NIV and others leave out when compared to the KJV. My question is.... what constitutes the "best" manuscripts? God Bless, bgg |
Bible Answer: Greetings Bgg! Makarios pointed you to a site which can probably answer your question in more detail than I could here. However, let me touch on a couple of important factors which determine "better" manuscripts as opposed to "weaker" manuscripts. 1) Age: This is one of the most important factors. We have literally thousands of manuscripts, but they cover a wide range of time. Therefore, one would give more importance to a manuscript dated from the second century than to one dated from the tenth century. 2) Quality: Of the various 'families' or 'types' of text, some are known to be of better quality than others. For instance, the Alexandrian texts are considered to generally be truer to the text than the the Western texts, which were given to conflating various readings into one long reading. Thus, one type of text can be 'better' than another. The various kinds of manuscripts include: a) Papyri: These are the earliest extant witneses to the text of the New Testament. Some of the most important ones include: p45, p45, p45, p52, p66, p72, p74, and p.75. Most of these manuscripts date from the second century or earlier. b) Uncial Manuscripts: These are parchmen manuscripts written in all capitals from about the fourth century through the tenth century. Some of the more important ones include: Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Alexandriinus, Codex Vaticanus, Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus, Codex Bezae, and Codex Washingtonensis. c) Minuscule Manuscripts: These are parchament manscripts written in all lower case letters dating from after the tenth century. There are also others kinds of manuscripts: Different languages or versions, lexicons, quotations by early church leaders, ect.... With the verse in question (Acts 8:37), it is not found in any manuscripts dated before the sixth centutry. Therefore, it was added almost 500-600 years after the original text of Acts was written. Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |